2005-03-28

Karl Rove hält weiter die Zügel in Washington in der Hand

--- Bushs Oberspindoktor Karl Rove wird immer mehr zum Mr. Unersetzlich im Weißen Haus. Verstärkt kümmert er sich jetzt auch um die Pläne, das Sozialversicherungssystem zu renovieren, berichtet die New York Times: "All roads lead to Karl," said Kenneth J. Duberstein, a Republican lobbyist who was the White House chief of staff under President Ronald Reagan and is now part of Mr. Rove's vast network of informal advisers and intelligence gatherers. Under one of his hats, Mr. Rove is running a sophisticated campaign on behalf of the president's Social Security proposals, employing all the components of the national political machine built to re-elect Mr. Bush. Under the other, he is overseeing policy meetings where the administration's senior officials analyze the competing Social Security proposals, bone up on arcane economic concepts and plot how to hit back at the substantive arguments made by people on the other side of the issue. Other presidents have had powerful advisers with a hand in both politics and policy. The most-cited model in recent times is James A. Baker III, who had a wide-ranging portfolio in the administrations of Mr. Reagan and Mr. Bush's father, and went from political operative to treasury secretary, to secretary of state, then back to overseeing a presidential campaign. But the intensity of Mr. Rove's involvement in politics and policy makes his current status unusual and gives him remarkably broad authority inside the White House and out. And in giving Mr. Rove his new title, Mr. Bush, freed from the need to think about re-election, seemed to acknowledge what everyone in Washington knows: that in this administration, as in all others, politics and policy are inextricably intertwined. "Karl Rove is the crossing guard at the intersection of policy and politics," said Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, who previously observed Mr. Rove for years as an aide to Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, and as legislative director of the Christian Coalition. "He blends political hack and propeller head in a way no one has ever achieved," Mr. Wittmann said. "No one is going to question his political expertise or his policy expertise. The question for him is always one of hubris."

Future Combat System wird ausgebremst

--- Das ambitionierte Programm der US-Army, den Krieger der Zukunft zu schaffen und die viel beschworene Revolution in Military Affairs weiter unter dem Titel Future Combat System weiter voran zu treiben, kommt aus Budgetgründen mal wieder ins Stocken, berichtet die New York Times: That price tag, larger than past estimates publicly disclosed by the Army, does not include a projected $25 billion for the communications network needed to connect the future forces. Nor does it fully account for Army plans to provide Future Combat weapons and technologies to forces beyond those first 15 brigades. Now some of the military's advocates in Congress are asking how to pay the bill. "We're dealing today with a train wreck," Representative Curt Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania and vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said at a March 16 Congressional hearing on the cost and complexity of Future Combat Systems. "We're left with impossible decisions," said Mr. Weldon, a strong supporter of Pentagon spending who was lamenting the trillion-dollar costs for the major weapons systems the Pentagon is building. One of those decisions, he warned, might cut back Future Combat. The Army sees Future Combat, the most expensive weapons program it has ever undertaken, as a seamless web of 18 different sets of networked weapons and military robots. The program is at the heart of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's campaign to transform the Army into a faster, lighter force in which stripped-down tanks could be put on a transport plane and flown into battle, and information systems could protect soldiers of the future as heavy armor has protected them in the past. Army officials say the task is a technological challenge as complicated as putting an astronaut on the moon. They call Future Combat weapons, which may take more than a decade to field, crucial for a global fight against terror. But the bridge to the future remains a blueprint. Army officials issued a stop-work order in January for the network that would link Future Combat weapons, citing its failure to progress. They said this month that they did not know if they could build a tank light enough to fly.

Virtual Reality vs. Irak-Traumata

--- Das US-Militär setzt VR-Szenarien zur Bewältigung von Traumata von Soldaten nach einen Irak-Aufenthalt ein, berichtet die Washington Post: Joseph Blythe settled into the couch in the psychologist's office, slipped on a pair of high-tech goggles, took hold of the joystick and within a few seconds was transported through time and distance back to Iraq. He walked briskly along the maze-like urban streets, scanning the rooftops for friend or foe, passing by bombed-out cars, listening to the roar of choppers flying past the palm trees. As he reached an alley, Blythe heard the whoosh of a bullet going past his head and flinched. "That was scary," he said. Blythe, a 25-year-old medic who spent eight months with the U.S. Marine Corps in Fallujah during its most turbulent period in 2004, is among the first to test a new virtual-reality system that the military hopes will help servicemen and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The idea behind the treatment is counterintuitive. It forces the troops to do the last thing they want to do: relive the experience. By confronting a make-believe Iraq, military scientists hope, patients will be able to assert better control over their memories. The intent is to stop the nightmares, outbursts of aggression and other readjustment issues that afflict many returning Marines, soldiers and sailors. As the fighting in Iraq enters its third year, the U.S. military is grappling with what threatens to become a mental-health crisis in the armed forces. A New England Journal of Medicine study published this year estimated that one of every six Army soldiers returning from the war zone experiences major depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Many others, such as Blythe, report milder symptoms. "Our minds aren't made to process that much death," he said. "Whoever goes to Iraq and comes back and says they have no problems is either in denial or is lying." Hört sich ein wenig nach den Teufel mit dem Beelzebub austreiben an.

Bush-Regierung läßt immer mehr Akten verschwinden

--- Während Rot-Grün sich weiter schwer tut mit dem geplanten Informationsfreiheitsgesetz, greift der seit über 40 Jahren gültige Freedoms of Information Act in den USA verstärkt ins Leere. Denn der Vermerk "Geheim" oder auch verstärkt einfach nur "Nur für den Dienstgebrauch" prangt auf immer mehr Regierungsakten: The government does a remarkable job of counting the number of national security secrets it generates each year. Since President George W. Bush entered office, the pace of classification activity has increased by 75 percent, said William Leonard in March 2 congressional testimony. His Information Security Oversight Office oversees the classification system and recorded a rise from 9 million classification actions in fiscal year 2001 to 16 million in fiscal year 2004. Yet an even more aggressive form of government information control has gone unenumerated and often unrecognized in the Bush era, as government agencies have restricted access to unclassified information in libraries, archives, Web sites, and official databases. Once freely available, a growing number of these sources are now barred to the public as "sensitive but unclassified" or "for official use only." Less of a goal-directed policy than a bureaucratic reflex, the widespread clampdown on formerly public information reflects a largely inarticulate concern about "security." It also accords neatly with the Bush administration's preference for unchecked executive authority. No comprehensive catalog of deleted information exists, which is part of the problem. What follows is a representative selection of categories of data that have been withdrawn from public access in the Bush years, with reflections on what they mean.

2005-03-24

US-Liste der wahrscheinlichsten Terrorziele

--- Das US-Heimatschutzministerium hat versehentlich eine Liste mit einem Dutzend Zielen veröffentlicht, die seiner Ansicht nach am ehesten für Terroristen attraktiv sein dürften, berichtet die New York Times: The Department of Homeland Security, trying to focus antiterrorism spending better nationwide, has identified a dozen possible strikes it views as most plausible or devastating, including detonation of a nuclear device in a major city, release of sarin nerve agent in office buildings and a truck bombing of a sports arena. The document, known simply as the National Planning Scenarios, reads more like a doomsday plan, offering estimates of the probable deaths and economic damage caused by each type of attack. They include blowing up a chlorine tank, killing 17,500 people and injuring more than 100,000; spreading pneumonic plague in the bathrooms of an airport, sports arena and train station, killing 2,500 and sickening 8,000 worldwide; and infecting cattle with foot-and-mouth disease at several sites, costing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Specific locations are not named because the events could unfold in many major metropolitan or rural areas, the document says. The agency's objective is not to scare the public, officials said, and they have no credible intelligence that such attacks are planned. The department did not intend to release the document publicly, but a draft of it was inadvertently posted on a Hawaii state government Web site. By identifying possible attacks and specifying what government agencies should do to prevent, respond to and recover from them, Homeland Security is trying for the first time to define what "prepared" means, officials said.That will help decide how billions of federal dollars are distributed in the future. Cities like New York that have targets with economic and symbolic value, or places with hazardous facilities like chemical plants could get a bigger share of agency money than before, while less vulnerable communities could receive less.

US-Justizministerium dokterte an Guantanamo-Report herum

--- Das US-Justizministerium, das seit einiger Zeit eine demokratisch verträgliche Linie zur Folterung von Gefangenen nach dem 11. September sucht, hat an einem internen Memo zu der umstrittenen Thematik noch einmal "Feinschliff" angelegt, bevor es das Papier an die Öffentlichkeit weiterleitete. Dies berichtet heute die Washington Post: U.S. law enforcement agents working at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, concluded that controversial interrogation practices used there by the Defense Department produced intelligence information that was "suspect at best," an FBI agent told a superior in a memo in May last year. But the Justice Department, which reviewed the memo for national security secrets before releasing it to a civil liberties group in December, redacted the FBI agent's conclusion. The department, acting after the Defense Department expressed its own views on which portions of the letter should be redacted, also blacked out a separate assertion in the memo that military interrogation practices could undermine future military trials for terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. It also withheld a statement by the memo's author that Justice Department criminal division officials were so concerned about the military interrogation practices that they took their complaints to the office of the Pentagon's chief attorney, William J. Haynes II, whom President Bush has nominated to become a federal appellate judge. The revelations in the memo, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) , generally amplify previously disclosed FBI concerns that military interrogators at the island prison were using coercive interrogation methods that could compromise any evidence of terrorist activities they obtained. FBI agents and officials had complained about the shackling of detainees to the floor for periods exceeding 24 hours, without food and water; the draping of a detainee in an Israeli flag; and the use of growling dogs to scare detainees. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who as White House counsel participated in detailed discussions about the legality of aggressive military interrogation techniques, has twice publicly expressed skepticism about the reliability of these FBI accounts. But the May 10, 2004, memo, written by an official whose name has not been disclosed, contains a highly detailed account of the efforts that FBI agents made to convince the Defense Department that its interrogation practices were wrongheaded.

2005-03-19

Zwei Jahre Irak-Krieg: US-Militär am Limit

--- Vor zwei Jahren startete Bush den Irak-Krieg mit einem Raketenangriff auf Saddam Hussein, der diesen aber verfehlte. Gut 1500 gefallene US-Soldaten weiter sind immer noch 150.000 GIs im Zweistromland stationiert, um die nicht nachlassenden Aufstände halbwegs unter Kontrolle zu halten. Die Washington Post sieht das US-Militär mit dem Irak- und Afghanistan-Krieg allgemein an ihre eigenen Grenzen gebracht.: The unexpectedly heavy demands of sustained ground combat are depleting military manpower and gear faster than they can be fully replenished. Shortfalls in recruiting and backlogs in needed equipment are taking a toll, and growing numbers of units have been broken apart or taxed by repeated deployments, particularly in the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. "What keeps me awake at night is, what will this all-volunteer force look like in 2007?" Gen. Richard A. Cody, Army vice chief of staff, said at a Senate hearing this week. The Iraq war has also led to a drop in the overall readiness of U.S. ground forces to handle threats at home and abroad, forcing the Pentagon to accept new risks -- even as military planners prepare for a global anti-terrorism campaign that administration officials say could last for a generation. Stretched by Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States lacks a sufficiently robust ability to put large numbers of "boots on the ground" in case of a major emergency elsewhere, such as the Korean Peninsula, in the view of some Republican and Democratic lawmakers and some military leaders. They are skeptical of the Pentagon's ability to substitute air and naval power, and they believe strongly that what the country needs is a bigger Army. "The U.S. military will respond if there are vital threats, but will it respond with as many forces as it needs, with equipment that is in excellent condition? The answer is no," said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.). To be sure, the military has also benefited from two years of war-zone rotations, and from a historical perspective it is holding up better than many analysts expected. U.S. troops are the most combat-hardened the nation has had for decades, and reenlistment levels have generally remained high. The war has also spurred technological innovation while providing momentum for a reorganization of a military that in many ways is still designed for the Cold War.

Bush selbst blickt zwangsweise rosig in die Zukunft und feiert tapfer weiter den Sieg der Freiheit sowie der Demokratie: Today we're seeing hopeful signs across the broader Middle East. The victory of freedom in Iraq is strengthening a new ally in the war on terror, and inspiring democratic reformers from Beirut to Tehran. Und dann gleich noch eine Ansage, die sich eher bedrohlich anhört: The experience of recent years has taught us an important lesson: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. Because of our actions, freedom is taking root in Iraq, and the American people are more secure.

Neues von Bushs Propaganda- und PR-Maschinerie

--- Nachdem Blogger.com seine Blockade am gestrigen Nachmittag überwunden hat, kann man hier sogar mal wieder bloggen! Noch im Nachtrag zum Eintrag von gestern morgen: Die New York Times hat als erste die Nachrichten über die Propaganda-Maschinerie des Weißen Hauses enthüllt. Demnach spielt Bush ab und an gern den Chefredakteur und lässt auf Kosten der Steuerzahler hübsche PR-Filmchen von speziellen Öffentlichkeitsbearbeitungsstellen seiner Ministerien über seine Regierung selbst produzieren. Diese streuen sie dann an die großen TV-Sender für die Abendnachrichten: It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets. "Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers. To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications. Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production. This winter, Washington has been roiled by revelations that a handful of columnists wrote in support of administration policies without disclosing they had accepted payments from the government. But the administration's efforts to generate positive news coverage have been considerably more pervasive than previously known. At the same time, records and interviews suggest widespread complicity or negligence by television stations, given industry ethics standards that discourage the broadcast of prepackaged news segments from any outside group without revealing the source. ... in three separate opinions in the past year, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that studies the federal government and its expenditures, has held that government-made news segments may constitute improper "covert propaganda" even if their origin is made clear to the television stations. The point, the office said, is whether viewers know the origin. Last month, in its most recent finding, the G.A.O. said federal agencies may not produce prepackaged news reports "that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency was the source of those materials.". Die Vermischung von PR und Redaktion in den US-Sendern, die solche Regierungspropaganda ja erst mit ermöglichen, steht damit in der Kritik. Mehr zum Thema im Handelsblatt oder bei Spiegel Online: Insgesamt 20 Bundesbehörden sollen diesen Trick zur Meinungsbildung genutzt haben; darunter auch das Verteidigungsministerium. Allein in den vergangenen vier Jahren sollen sie Hunderte solcher Nachrichten-Beiträge hergestellt haben. Sie sollen vor allem von lokalen Stationen ausgestrahlt worden ein.

Karen Hughes soll die US-Regierung besser verkaufen

--- Karen Hughes hat das idyllische texanische Familienleben, wegen dem sie 2002 ihren Posten als Chefberaterin George W. Bushs aufgegeben hatte, anscheinend schon wieder satt. Sie wird nun wieder full time ihrem Präsidenten zur Seite stehen als Verkäuferin der US-Regierung im Außenministerium und erneut direkt vor Ort den "mütterlichen Gegenpol" zu Oberspindoktor Karl Rove abgeben. Kein leichter Job, bei dem schlechten Image von Bushs Amerika in weiten Teilen der Welt: Former White House counselor Karen P. Hughes will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world, where anti-Americanism has fueled extremist groups and terrorism, a senior administration official said yesterday. Hughes, 48, who has been one of President Bush's closest advisers since his tenure as Texas governor, plans to return to Washington soon to rejoin the president's team after a three-year absence and set up shop at the State Department, where she will work with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reinvigorate the campaign for hearts and minds overseas. Hughes will take over an operation that has been criticized as lackluster by many analysts and, privately, even by some administration officials, despite its mission of waging a war of ideas against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist organizations. The last undersecretary for public diplomacy, Margaret Tutwiler, left last summer after less than a year on the job. The post has remained vacant since. ... The State Department spent $685 million on public diplomacy in 2004, but critics complain that it has not been increased enough since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that most of it has not targeted the Muslim world.

2005-03-11

Pentagon überdenkt Doktrin der "Präventionskriege"

--- Der stockende Irak-Krieg zwingt das US-Verteidiungsministerium, die Doktrin der "präemptiven" Kriege zur Demokratisierung von "Schurkenstaaten" zu überdenken, berichtet die LA Times: The war in Iraq is forcing top Pentagon planners to rethink several key assumptions about the use of military power and has called into question the vision set out nearly four years ago that the armed forces can win wars and keep the peace with small numbers of fast-moving, lightly armed troops. As the Pentagon begins a comprehensive review that will map the future of America's armed forces, many Defense Department officials are acknowledging that an intractable Iraqi insurgency they didn't foresee has undermined the military strategy. ... As the Pentagon begins its assessment, it has 145,000 troops stationed in a country they were supposed to have left months ago. And with tensions rising between Washington and the two other countries labeled by President Bush as part of an "axis of evil" — Iran and North Korea — there is a growing belief within the military's ranks that the White House's rhetoric about preemptive war is out of sync with the U.S. military's strained resources. ... the importance of peacekeeping operations and help from allied militaries — ideas that some discounted three years ago as remnants of the President Clinton era — are back in vogue at the Pentagon. ... The Iraq war has also shown the weakness in a strategy created by the Pentagon in 2003 to help plan major operations. The 10-30-30 construct said that the U.S. military should plan military actions to seize the initiative within 10 days of the start of an offensive, achieve limited military objectives within 30 days, and be prepared within another 30 days to shift military resources to another area of the world. Many Pentagon officials fear that the success Iraqi insurgents have had in preventing a U.S. troop reduction in Iraq could be the new rule, rather than the exception.

2005-03-10

US-Militärgeheimdienstler will "Spionage-Blogs"

--- Dass Weblogs auch von Geheimdiensten gern gelesen werden, hatten wir bereits gehört. Neu ist, dass Kris Alexander, ein US-Reserve-Offizier im militärischen Nachrichtendienst, in Wired offen die Einrichtung von "Spionage-Blogs" fordert: Instead of embarking on an expensive and decades-long process of reform - the type loved by bureaucrats on Capitol Hill - the services can fix this themselves. There's no reason our nation's spy organizations can't leap­frog what the Army is already doing with Web technology and, at the same time, build upon what the public is doing with the blogosphere. Launched in 2001, Army Knowledge Online is Yahoo! for grunts. All the things that make life on the Net interesting and useful are on AKO. Every soldier has an account, and each unit has its own virtual workspace. Soldiers in my reserve unit are scattered throughout Texas, and we're physically together only once a month. AKO lets us stay linked around the clock. Another innovative program is the Center for Army Lessons Learned, basically an überblog staffed by experts. Soldiers can post white papers on subjects ranging from social etiquette at Iraqi funerals to surviving convoy ambushes. A search for "improvised explosive device" yields more than 130 hits. The center's articles are vetted by the staff for accuracy and usefulness, and anyone in the Army can submit. Unfortunately, the intelligence community has not kept up with the Army. The 15 agencies of the community - ranging from the armed services to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency - maintain separate portals, separate data, and separate people. The bad guys exploit the gaps, and your safety is on the line. So if all us knuckle-draggers in the Army can use technology to make ourselves better, why can't all the big brains at Langley and Foggy Bottom do the same? The first step toward reform: Encourage blogging on Intelink. When I Google "Afghanistan blog" on the public Internet, I find 1.1 million entries and tons of useful information. But on Intelink there are no blogs. Imagine if the experts in every intelligence field were turned loose - all that's needed is some cheap software. It's not far-fetched to picture a top-secret CIA blog about al Qaeda, with postings from Navy Intelligence and the FBI, among others. Leave the bureaucratic infighting to the agency heads. Give good analysts good tools, and they'll deliver outstanding results. And why not tap the brainpower of the blogosphere as well? The intelligence community does a terrible job of looking outside itself for information. From journalists to academics and even educated amateurs - there are thousands of people who would be interested and willing to help. Imagine how much traffic an official CIA Iraq blog would attract. If intelligence organizations built a collaborative environment through blogs, they could quickly identify credible sources, develop a deep backfield of contributing analysts, and engage the world as a whole. How cool would it be to gain "trusted user" status on a CIA blog? Wir sind natürlich bereit.

2005-03-08

Al Qaida versucht angeblich die CIA zu unterwandern

--- Also, also, jetzt versucht al Qaida oder wer immer dahinter stehen koennte laut LA Times, gar schon die mächtige CIA und andere US-Geheimdienste zu unterwandern: U.S. counterintelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Al Qaeda sympathizers or operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other U.S. agencies in an effort to spy on American counterterrorist efforts. So far, about 40 Americans who sought positions at U.S. intelligence agencies have been red-flagged and turned away for possible ties to terrorist groups, the officials said. Several such applicants have been detected at the CIA. "We think terrorist organizations have tried to insinuate people into our hiring pools," said Barry Royden, a 39-year CIA veteran who is a counterintelligence instructor at the agency. Also, three senior counterintelligence officials said they feared terrorist groups may be trying to place an "insider" in America's fast-growing counterterrorist planning and operational networks as part of a long-term strategy to compromise U.S. intelligence efforts. But unlike Royden, the officials added that it was still unclear if anyone had been assigned to infiltrate U.S. intelligence to commit espionage for a terrorist group. No one has been arrested, and no one has been linked to any new "sleeper cell" of suspected terrorists in America. Agenturberichte auf Deutsch gibt es auch bereits dazu. Eigentlich gehört die Gegenspionage natürlich mit zum Geschäft der Geheimdienste zwischen Staaten. Aber bei der vielköpfigen, formlosen und staatenlosen Hydra al Qaida handelt es sich eben um einen besonders undurchsichtigen und unberechenbaren Gegner.

Die selbsternannten Terrorjäger vom NEIN machen derweil auf ein neues, grafisch aufgepepptes "Online-Magazin" von al Qaida aufmerksam mit dem mysteriösen Titel: "Die Spitze des Kamelhöckers". Demnach wandern die USA selbst wieder verstärkt ins Zentrum der Aktivitäten der Terrororganisation: The recent creation of a glossy, on-line magazine publication by Zarqawi's group Qaeda't al Jihad, entitled Tharwat al Sanam (literally translated to Tip of the Camel's Hump), along with a broader assessment of current and historical communications is a demonstrative example of a perceptible shift in focus of the terrorist leaders. Simply stated, bin Laden et al are calling on operations to shift from Muslim countries to targets inside the U.S. Contrary to the arguments advanced in the major media, there is no desperation. There is anger, and there is an increased determination and shift of focus, but no desperation.

2005-03-06

Folter, Anti-Terrorkampf, CIA und Bush

--- Dass die CIA seit längerem Terrorverdächtige flugs mal in Länder wie Afghanistan ausfliegt und dort Verständnisse zu erpressen sucht, ist kein Geheimnis mehr. Nun berichtet die New York Times aber noch, dass Bush selbst diese Praktiken in einer geheimen Leitlinie befürwortet und keinerlei Überprüfung angeordnet hat: The Bush administration's secret program to transfer suspected terrorists to foreign countries for interrogation has been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency under broad authority that has allowed it to act without case-by-case approval from the White House or the State or Justice Departments, according to current and former government officials. The unusually expansive authority for the C.I.A. to operate independently was provided by the White House under a still-classified directive signed by President Bush within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the officials said. The process, known as rendition, has been central in the government's efforts to disrupt terrorism, but has been bitterly criticized by human rights groups on grounds that the practice has violated the Bush administration's public pledge to provide safeguards against torture. In providing a detailed description of the program, a senior United States official said that it had been aimed only at those suspected of knowing about terrorist operations, and emphasized that the C.I.A. had gone to great lengths to ensure that they were detained under humane conditions and not tortured. The official would not discuss any legal directive under which the agency operated, but said that the "C.I.A. has existing authorities to lawfully conduct these operations." The official declined to be named but agreed to discuss the program to rebut the assertions that the United States used the program to secretly send people to other countries for the purpose of torture. The transfers were portrayed as an alternative to what American officials have said is the costly, manpower-intensive process of housing them in the United States or in American-run facilities in other countries. In recent weeks, several former detainees have described being subjected to coercive interrogation techniques and brutal treatment during months spent in detention under the program in Egypt and other countries. Mehr über den Persilschein aus dem Weißen Haus bei Spiegel Online.

Weitere Geheimdienstnachrichten in der Washington Post. Demnach dürfen die CIA und andere US-Geheimdienste mit Bushs Segen jetzt härter gegen die Spione aus Ländern, die als Gefahr für die innere Sicherheit angesehen werden, vorgehen: The Bush administration has adopted a new counterintelligence strategy that calls for preemptive action against foreign intelligence services viewed as threats to national security, officials said Saturday. The first national U.S. counterintelligence strategy, which President Bush approved on Tuesday, aims to combat intelligence services from countries hungry for U.S. military and nuclear secrets, such as China and Iran, both at home and abroad, counterintelligence officials said. ... Officials said the plan aims to protect U.S. intelligence and information systems from foreign agents, including al Qaeda, by integrating counterintelligence through the new Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. ... "We have a great deal of bilateral cooperation between agencies. But we need strategically orchestrated operations directed against prioritized foreign intelligence threats," said national counterintelligence executive Michelle Van Cleave, who will oversee the plan. ... officials cited China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Libya as nations that have tried to collect U.S. secrets through spy techniques, including cyber espionage.

Ein Jahr nach Madrid: die Angst sitzt in der EU mit am Tisch

--- Die LA Times prescht bereits mit einem Rückblick und einer Neueinschätzung der blutigen Attentate in Madrid am 11. März 2004 vor. Nichts genaues weiß man demnach nach wie vor über die Hintermänner, während die kaltblütige Planung und Durchführung der Anschläge und ihre politische Motivation noch einmal beleuchtet wird. The Moroccan wanted to die as much as he wanted to kill. When Abdenabi Kounjaa helped unleash Al Qaeda's jihad on Europe last March, the drug dealer-turned-holy warrior got both his wishes. Traces of his DNA were found in a van that terrorists had used before planting backpack bombs that killed 191 people aboard four commuter trains here March 11. And four of his fingers were found in the rubble of a hide-out where seven barricaded fugitives immolated themselves three weeks later, capping a rampage that helped topple Spain's center-right government. Almost a year later, European investigators are still sifting through the human debris and other evidence to better understand the enemy within. Their findings lead to locales as disparate as Casablanca, Morocco; Paris; Damascus, Syria; and Amsterdam. It traces the rise of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, or GICM, the organizing force for militants whom police have battled in the wake of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Europe's modern history. ... Some fundamental questions remain in the Madrid case, chiefly whether Kounjaa and his bosses followed direct orders or merely an ideological line from Al Qaeda masterminds. In either scenario, the attacks reflect an increasingly calculated political strategy, said Jean-Louis Bruguiere, France's top anti-terrorism magistrate. "It's not the result of a command structure giving direct orders, but of people talking: scattered networks in which operatives talk and a strategy develops," Bruguiere said. "It focuses on political agendas of Western nations…. It was as if the terrorists kicked down the door and invited themselves to the table along with politicians and diplomats. It's a sophisticated approach. The paradox is that the methods and the suspects in the field were rustic." ... Security services across the continent have been deeply involved in the Madrid case because of its wide-ranging links and implications. Looking in the mirror of Spain's misfortune, they see a frightening potential for the attack to be replicated elsewhere.

2005-03-03

US-Polit-Bloggern droht Linkverbot

--- Die amerikanische Federal Election Commission (FEC) muss sich gegenwärtig mit der Umsetzung des umstrittenen Wahlkampf-Finanzierungsgesetzes im Internet herumschlagen. Die Washingtoner Bezirksrichterin Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- bekannt geworden vor allem durch ihre ebenfalls heftig umstrittene Haltung im US-Microsoft-Prozess -- hatte im Herbst entschieden, dass die von der FEC zunächst erlassene Ausnahme des Internet von dem Gesetz dessen Geist widerspreche. Nun könnten bald selbst Links auf die Seiten von Politikern im Wahlkampf als illegale Unterstützung gerechnet und damit verboten werden, erläutert Bradley Smith von der FEC in einem Interview mit CNet News: The real question is: Would a link to a candidate's page be a problem? If someone sets up a home page and links to their favorite politician, is that a contribution? This is a big deal, if someone has already contributed the legal maximum, or if they're at the disclosure threshold and additional expenditures have to be disclosed under federal law. Certainly a lot of bloggers are very much out front. Do we give bloggers the press exemption? If we don't give bloggers the press exemption, we have the question of, do we extend this to online-only journals like CNET? ... It's going to be a battle, and if nobody in Congress is willing to stand up and say, "Keep your hands off of this, and we'll change the statute to make it clear," then I think grassroots Internet activity is in danger. The impact would affect e-mail lists, especially if there's any sense that they're done in coordination with the campaign. If I forward something from the campaign to my personal list of several hundred people, which is a great grassroots activity, that's what we're talking about having to look at. ... We're talking about any decision by an individual to put a link (to a political candidate) on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet. ... This is an incredible thicket. If someone else doesn't take action, for instance in Congress, we're running a real possibility of serious Internet regulation. It's going to be bizarre. Wirklich bizarr, was im selbsternannten Land der großen Meinungsfreiheit da mal wieder beschlossen wurde und jetzt bei der Festlegung konkreter Richtlinien überall zu Abgrenzungsproblemen führt. Es gibt also nicht nur hierzulande Menschen, welche die sozialen Netzwerkfunktionen des Internet gar nicht mögen und sie daher kaputt regulieren wollen. Dank auch an David für den Link.

USA: Widerstand gegen Bushs Reformagenda wächst

--- Laut einer Umfrage der New York Times und CBS fühlen sich mehr und mehr Amerikaner mit der sich vor allem auf das Sozialsystem beziehenden innenpolitischen Reformagenda der Bush-Regierung (an der auch der Oberspindoktor im Weißen Haus, Karl Rove, kräftig mitgestrickt hat) unwohl: On Social Security, 51 percent said permitting individuals to invest part of their Social Security taxes in private accounts, the centerpiece of Mr. Bush's plan, was a bad idea, even as a majority said they agreed with Mr. Bush that the program would become insolvent near the middle of the century if nothing was done. The number who thought private accounts were a bad idea jumped to 69 percent if respondents were told that the private accounts would result in a reduction in guaranteed benefits. And 45 percent said Mr. Bush's private account plan would actually weaken the economic underpinnings of the nation's retirement system. ... there is strong resistance to other options available to Mr. Bush and lawmakers to repair the system, in particular to raising the retirement age or making participation voluntary. Notwithstanding Mr. Bush's argument that citizens should be given more control over their retirement savings, almost four out of five respondents said it was the government's responsibility to assure a decent standard of living for the elderly. The poll was the first conducted by The Times and CBS News since the president's inauguration. ... Four months after Mr. Bush won a solid re-election over Senator John Kerry, 63 percent of respondents say the president has different priorities on domestic issues than most Americans. Asked to choose among five domestic issues facing the country, respondents rated Social Security third, behind jobs and health care. And nearly 50 percent said Democrats were more likely to make the right decisions about Social Security, compared with 31 percent who said the same thing about Republicans. Bush macht davon unbekümmert trotzdem erst mal weiter Dampf.

Insgesamt scheint sich der Fokus der US-Bürger verstärkt auf die Innenpolitik zu verlagern, der Irak, wo jüngst erst wieder ein Selbstmordattentäter über 130 Menschen tötete, und andere weltweite Brennpunkte geraten da ins Hintertreffen: In an apparent reflection of the success of the Iraq elections, 53 percent of those surveyed said that efforts to bring order to Iraq were going very or somewhat well, up from 41 percent a month ago. That is the highest rating on that score since the capture of Mr. Hussein. Still, 42 percent now say that Mr. Bush would have been better off trying to counter the threat of North Korea before invading Iraq, compared with 45 percent who think Mr. Bush was correct to focus first on Iraq.

2005-03-02

Arabischer US-Propagandasender kommt nach Europa

--- Der umstrittene arabischsprachige US-Propagandasender Alhurra soll noch in diesem Jahr auch in Europa Islamisten im Krieg gegen den Terror auf die Seite der Amerikaner ziehen: The Bush administration plans to begin Arab-language satellite-television broadcasts to Europe later this year in a new escalation of its information war against Islamic extremism, officials say. Some 3½ years after Islamic militants based in Germany helped mount the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, US-backed TV channel Alhurra expects to transmit 24-hour programming to European Muslim communities seen as potential breeding grounds of extremism. France and Germany, which have Western Europe's largest Muslim populations, would be a special focus for news and current affairs programs intended to promote an American ethic of free speech and open debate, officials say. ''The 9/11 hijackers came largely from Europe. It's a significant gap that we were not broadcasting in Arabic to Europe," said Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the US agency in charge of US civilian television and radio broadcasts overseas. The planned broadcasts, which would not include Russia, are also meant as competition for Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera, which administration officials view as an anti-American rival for Muslim public opinion. ''The reason for being [in Europe] is the same as our reason for being in the Middle East: to provide a different perspective . . . of America and the world," said Norman Pattiz, who chairs the broadcasting board's Middle East committee. Start-up funding for the $3.5 million venture would come from President Bush's $81 billion supplemental budget request for military operations in Iraq. If Congress approves the request within the next several weeks as officials expect, Virginia-based Alhurra could begin broadcasting next fall to a Muslim population estimated at 11 million people in Western Europe alone, officials said.